Kaiser Permanente is launching a new 4-year psychiatry residency program in the greater Sacramento area to help grow the future mental health workforce in Northern California.

The Greater Sacramento Valley Psychiatry Residency Program will begin in July with 6 new physicians just out of medical school, eventually growing to a class of 24. Kaiser Permanente already has psychiatry residency programs in Oakland and San Jose, with 24 residents each.

“We are excited to support the next generation of psychiatrists who will serve our diverse communities with compassion and excellence,” said Hillary Campbell, MD, director of Graduate Medical Education for the greater Sacramento area.

Anna Vinter, MD, will serve as the first program director.

Deep investment in psychiatry training

“The residency program represents a deep investment in growing the mental health workforce and creating the representative psychiatric workforce our community so needs,” said Dr. Vinter.

Psychiatry residents receive training in a wide variety of mental health care, such as inpatient and outpatient care, addiction medicine, child and adolescent care, and emergency care. They often work with mental health therapists when there is a need for medication or assistance in managing substance use disorder, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder.

Ted O’Connell, MD, Kaiser Permanente Northern California director of Medical Education, said the programs help reduce the need for psychiatrist recruitment at Kaiser Permanente because about 45% stay on after completing residency.

“We still have to go out and recruit psychiatrists, but the residency programs make it so we don’t have to recruit so many,” said Dr. O’Connell. “A graduating resident is already familiar with us, they understand our operations, onboard quicker, and are more likely to stay with the group they trained with. They know what they are getting into.”

Dr. O’Connell said career pathways in psychiatry are numerous and varied.

“There are 100 different ways or more you could practice psychiatry after residency,” he said. “You could do outpatient work, inpatient work at a facility, consult services in a hospital or emergency room, niche practices around psychiatric illnesses, or you could focus on one demographic group. Those are just a few examples.”

Residents motivated to begin work

Brittany Abeldt, MD, 33, is in her fourth year of residency in the Oakland program. She was motivated to begin a career in psychiatry through family experiences and from working with psychiatric patients as an emergency medical technician before she started medical school.

She is currently in rotation at Napa State Hospital. Her training there includes working with not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity patients in the criminal justice system and learning about the use of electroconvulsive therapy.

“I’ve enjoyed hearing the patient stories and seeing the progress they’ve made since being at the hospital,” Dr. Abeldt said of her patients in the criminal justice system. “Gaining a firsthand perspective on the psychological aspects of crime has broadened my empathy.”

Post-residency, Dr. Abeldt said she is considering working with patients who have psychotic disorders or other severe mental illnesses.

During medical school she connected with psychiatric patients, and she found common ground with other clinicians working in mental health.

“I felt in sync with the residents’ and attendings’ perspectives on the humanity and empathy required in patient care,” said Dr. Abeldt. “I knew then that psychiatry was where I belong.”